Best Soundcard for Wav files

Rambaud · 3 May 2006 at 15:22

I listen to most of my muisc on my PC - mainly WAV or APE (but sometimes MP3) - using the mobo's on-board sound and 2.1 speakers. No games, but some DVDs.

I am thinking of upgrading to a PCI or USB Soundcard.

Brother in law has offered a Videologic (Turtle Beach) SonicFury card. I assume that will be an improvement, but it is a bit old technology.

What about an EMU 0404, or X-Fi Extreme Music, Audigy 2 NX, M Audio Audiophile 2496 etc?

Budget is (up to) ~ £100.00

Andelusion · 3 May 2006 at 15:24

I'm using an M-Audio 192, tis basically the 'new' 2496, with a set of Alesis monitors, great sound quality, to hear any noticable improvement you'd have to spend a lot in my opinion.

Rambaud · 3 May 2006 at 15:38

Andelusion said:
I'm using an M-Audio 192, tis basically the 'new' 2496, with a set of Alesis monitors, great sound quality, to hear any noticable improvement you'd have to spend a lot in my opinion.

Andelusion, do you think the 192 is worth the extra £55.00 over the 2496?

jbloggs · 5 May 2006 at 11:17

In terms of just listening to music the EMU 0404 is supposed to be very good indeed.

Codmate · 5 May 2006 at 12:24

Rambaud said:
Andelusion, do you think the 192 is worth the extra £55.00 over the 2496?

The 192 has the ability to record at 192kHz, which is overkill for most professional studios IME! I mean - who has the hard drive space - lol!

The 192 has a marginally specifications overall, and uses 1/4" jacks, rather than RCA plugs.

Either is a good card.

squiffy · 5 May 2006 at 12:36

Does the 2496/192 output multi-channel DD/DTS streams? Does it sound any better than the Revolution 5.1/7.1? Better/more stable drivers? I think I will use the analogue outputs (digital out to AV amp, analogue to pre-amp) Ideally though would like a sc with two digital outputs, because I have a DAC and a av pre-amp but probably have to limit myself to analogue from the sc for 2 channel.

Codmate · 5 May 2006 at 13:46

squiffy said:
Does the 2496/192 output multi-channel DD/DTS streams? Does it sound any better than the Revolution 5.1/7.1? Better/more stable drivers? I think I will use the analogue outputs (digital out to AV amp, analogue to pre-amp) Ideally though would like a sc with two digital outputs, because I have a DAC and a av pre-amp but probably have to limit myself to analogue from the sc for 2 channel.

Here are the specs for some M-Audio cards:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496-focus.html
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile192-focus.html
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Revolution51-focus.html

The Revolution 5.1 is a great sounding card - the 7.1 sounded a bit... well... 'cheaper' IMO. It's hard to put my finger on.

Somebody's going to tell me they use the same chipset or something - lol - but the 5.1 definitly sounded quite a bit better in my view.

The other cards are really for recording/mixing/mastering, but also work nicely for clean and uncomplicated stereo playback.

I've never heard a 192, but the 2496 is class for the money.
I believe it uses the same basic VIA chipset that my Delta66 uses, and that doesn't sound too shabby at all.

Rambaud · 5 May 2006 at 15:13

I have fitted the Turtle Beach soundcard - it's a Santa Cruz.

Although I have only been listening to it for only a few minutes, it is an improvement over the on-board sound - I was quite surprised actually.

Unfortunately, it's whetted my appetite.

So is something like an EMU 0404 etc going to be another reasonable improvement without spending too much money?

Rambaud · 19 May 2006 at 15:21

**UPDATE**

Following advice here, I have ordered an M-Audio Audiophile 192 soundcard.

And an external DAC for my cheapie DVD/SACD player arrived this morning. I am intending connecting it with the M-Audio card.